The Book of REVELATION, thus viewed, as it ought to be, is a divine Warning of the peril and unhappiness of all who are enthralled by Rome. And its prophetic and comminatory uses ought to be pointed out by all Christian Ministers, and to be acknowledged by all Christian congregations.

They, whether Clergy or People, forfeit a great blessing and incur great danger, who neglect these divinely-appointed uses of the Apocalypse, particularly in the present age, when the Church of Rome is employed with more than her usual activity in spreading her snares around us, to make victims of her deceits, prisoners of her power, slaves of her will, and partners of her doom.

Still further, and much more: A Minister of the Gospel, when led in the discharge of his duty to treat specially of the Apocalypse, would be betraying his sacred trust, if he did not call the attention of his hearers to these prophecies which occupy so large a portion of this Sacred Book; and which, for reasons that he will state publicly, he is fully persuaded have been fulfilled, or are in course of fulfilment, in the Church of Rome.

He would be guilty of the heinous sin of handling the word of God deceitfully *; and, in St. Paul's language, he would not be pure of the blood of the souls of his hearers, as not declaring to them the whole counsel of Godt. He would be chargeable with

*

2 Cor. iv. 2.

Acts xx. 26, 27.

taking away from the words of St. John's prophecy ; and so would be in peril of having his own name blotted out from the book of life*, if he failed to lift up his voice, and to blow the trumpet of the Gospel with no uncertain sound †, and to proclaim publicly and solemnly, in accents which cannot be mistaken, that the BABYLON of the APOCALYPSE is no other than the CHURCH of ROME.

In discharging this responsible duty, he must, however, crave not to be misunderstood.

Having a deep sense of the danger of those who dwell in Babylon, he will never venture to affirm that none who have dwelt there could be saved. The Apocalypse itself forbids him. On the very eve of its destruction the voice from heaven says, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues ‡. And so, we doubt not, God ever has had, and now has, some people in Babylon.

Some, doubtless, there were in former times in our own land who had not the blessed privilege which we enjoy of hearing the voice, Come out of her. They had not the warnings of the Gospel: to them it was almost a sealed book. And this, too, is even yet the case with many in foreign lands. And, since responsibilities vary with privileges, and God judgeth men according to what they have, and

* Rev. xxii. 19.

Rev. xviii. 4.

+1 Cor. xiv. 8.

not according to what they have not*, therefore Christian Love, which hopeth all things †, will think charitably, and, if it speak at all, will not speak harshly of them .

All this we readily allow. But then we must not shrink from asking, What will be the lot of those who hear the voice, Come out of her, and yet do not obey it? And what will be their portion, who, when the voice says, Come out of her,-go in to Babylon, and dwell there?

Again: the Minister of the Gospel, to whose case we have referred, is obliged, for fear of misrepresentation, to say, that he readily acknowledges, and openly professes, that Christianity does not consist in hatred of Rome.

We are not of those, who, in the words of the great Lord Clarendon §, "consider the Christian Religion no otherwise than as it abhors and reviles Popery, and who value those men most, who do it most furiously." No; the Gospel is a divine Message of Peace on earth, and good will towards men ||.

* Luke xii. 48. 2 Cor. viii. 12.

† 1 Cor. xiii. 7.

Compare the wise and charitable sentiments of St. Cyprian, Epist. lxiii. Si quis de antecessoribus nostris vel ignoranter vel simpliciter non observavit et tenuit quod nos DOMINUS facere exemplo suo et magisterio docuit, potest simplicitati ejus de indulgentiâ Domini venia concedi; nobis verò non poterit ignosci, qui nunc a Domino admoniti et instructi sumus.

§ Clarendon, Hist. Rebell. i. 88, p. 38, ed. Oxf. 1839. || Luke ii. 14.

The banner over us is Love*. No one is safe because his brother is in danger: no man is better because his neighbour is worse. Our warfare is not with men, but with sins. We love the erring, but not their errors; and we oppose their errors, because we love the erring, and because we desire their salvation, which is perilled by their errors, and because we love the truth, which is able to save their souls.

We know that Error is manifold; but Truth is one: and that, therefore, it is by no means enough to oppose Error; for one error may be opposed by another opposite error; and the only right opposition to Error is Truth. We know, also, that by God's mercy there are truths in Rome as well as errors; and that some who oppose Rome may be opposing her truths, and not her errors. Our warfare is against the errors of Rome, and for the maintenance of the truth of Christ. We reject Popery because we profess Christianity, and because we must contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints. We abhor Babylon, because we love Sion. And the aim of our warfare is not to destroy our adversaries, but to save their souls. Therefore in what we now say, or shall hereafter say, on this subject, we hope to follow the precept of the Apostle, Speak the truth in love; and if, through human infirmity, any thing be spoken otherwise, we pray

*Cant. ii. 4.

† Jude 3.

Eph. iv. 15.

God that it may perish speedily, as though it had never been.

We pass now to certain other important preliminary topics.

I. It cannot be doubted that our most eminent Divines have commonly held and taught that the Apocalyptic prophecies, concerning Babylon, were designed by the Holy Spirit to describe the Church of Rome. Not only they who flourished at the period of our Reformation, such as Archbishop Cranmer, Bishops Ridley and Jewel, and the Authors of our Homilies, but they also who followed them in the next, the most learned, Age of our Theology,

-I mean, the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century,-proclaimed openly the same doctrine. Yes, my brethren, and it was maintained by those in that learned age, who were most eminent for sober moderation and Christian charity, as well as for profound erudition. It may suffice to mention the illustrious names of Richard Hooker * and Bishop Andrewes †.

But after them a new generation arose.

This was

* Hooker, e. g. Sermon on St. Jude 17-21. "That which they call Schisme we know to be our reasonable service unto God and obedience to His Voice, which crieth shrill in our ears, 'Go out of Babylon, My People, that you be not partakers of her Sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.'" (Rev. xviii. 4.) † Bp. Andrewes, c. Bellarmin. capp. ix-xii. p. 220-290. See Appendix I. in Vol. ii. of these Lectures.

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